Fog’s not what it used to be. Time was when our whereabouts was down to an ‘analogue’ estimated position, and any poor masher who hadn’t kept the dead reckoning (DR) up to date was left blundering around in confusion. We know where we are today thanks to GPS, and AIS tells us about any ship over 300 tons heading our way with malice intent. We still have to dodge small fishing craft, yachts, navigation buoys and a hundred-and-one further hazards not declaring themselves electronically, but most will be spotted by radar if we have it. The result of this progress in the space of a single generation is that, when we see a bank of fog coming our way, nobody need clutch the coaming with white knuckles wondering what to do next.
Fog is still horrible of course. Nothing is going to change that.
It remains an
